Yehonatan Ovadia, a 35-year-old Israeli citizen and member of the anti-Zionist Satmar Hasidic movement, has been held in immigration detention since August, and the Trump administration is seeking to deport him to Israel over his presence at a November 2023 protest in Ramapo, New York. The New York Times broke the story on September 30, and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Ynet followed with reporting from his lawsuit and government documents. Ovadia, a religious teacher and father of five in Rockland County, came to the United States in 2022 on a religious worker visa.
The protest targeted an Israeli flag the town supervisor had mounted outside Ramapo's town hall after the October 7 attack. Surveillance footage showed several men tearing the flag down and cutting it up. Ovadia says he drove people to the protest but did not remove the flag. He was charged with criminal mischief, petit larceny and conspiracy, all as hate crimes; the hate crime charges were dropped, and in February 2024 he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, which New York classifies as a violation rather than a crime, paying a $200 fine plus $125.
When his congregation sought to extend his visa in September 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued what the Times called an unusual split decision. It found no “conviction or commission of a crime involving moral turpitude” and did not deny the work petition, but it denied him an extension of stay “as a matter of discretion,” weighing the dropped charges, the disorderly conduct violation and police records saying he declined to identify others involved. Without the extension, his status lapsed when his visa expired in November 2025. ICE arrested him after he was summoned to immigration court in Manhattan on August 28, and he is held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The Department of Homeland Security told JTA, “In violation of our nation's laws, he overstayed his welcome and refused to depart,” and said the administration “acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and steals property.” The USCIS decision itself did not cite his political activism or the administration's antisemitism executive order, Ynet reported.
His lawyers have sued in federal court in Manhattan for his release (Ovadia v. Francis), arguing the government is punishing protected political and religious speech and, in their words, preferring “one religious position within Judaism and [penalizing] an adherent of another.” Attorney Eric Lee told the Times, “He's against the Israeli government and the existence of the state of Israel for religious reasons, but to claim that he's an antisemite is the peak of absurdity.” At a September 30 hearing the government named Israel as the country it would deport him to, another of his lawyers told JTA, and Haaretz reported that a judge ruled he will remain in custody. The case is in progress; no final removal order has been reported.